News

Members of Livingston’s volunteer Fire Department extinguished a car fire and a dumpster fire, freed passengers trapped in an elevator, and responded to a broken water pipe this past week.

On Thursday, August 29, firefighters were dispatched to exit 6 off Route 280 eastbound (Laurel Avenue) after a vehicle was reported to have gone off the road into the woods and caught fire. Upon their arrival, firefighters found the driver was out of the burning car, which was fully involved. They extinguished the fire with no injuries reported.

A general alarm was sounded on Friday,August 30, after the contents of a dumpster at Heritage Middle School ignited. The fire was extinguished without incident, and no damage was reported.

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Livingston’s annual Ceremony of Remembrance will be held on Wednesday, September 11, at the 9-11 Living Memorial Garden on the Oval in Memorial Park. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be held rain or shine.

This annual ceremony honors the lives of the seven Livingston residents who perished in the terrorist attack on theWorldTrade Centers in 2001: Luke A. Dudek, Jeffrey Brian Gardner, Donald Thomas Jones II, Ming-Hao Liu, Joseph P. McDonald, John M. Pocher, and Kenneth Albert Zelman.

Event chairwoman Bunnie Ratner said the ceremony “reminds all of the importance of remembering what happened that day. While the attacks themselves occurred 18 years ago, their consequences are still felt each day.”

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The Livingston Police Department took three people into custody on Thursday, August 29, in relation to several investigations that took place over the past few months.

On June 13, Officer Michael Spano tried to stop a 2019 Dodge Caravan in relation to a theft that occurred in East Hanover. Rather than stop, the driver of the van initiated a vehicle pursuit that started on East Mt. Pleasant Avenue at the Rossmore Terrace intersection, and continued east to Shrewsbury Drive and then onto Route 280, where the police terminated the pursuit.

During the chase, the occupants of the van threw stolen property out of an open sliding door. A follow-up investigation led to the identification of Jamal Johns, 22, of Newark, as the operator of the van. He was charged with eluding police and a warrant was issued.

Township students returned to classes for the new school year on Wednesday, September 4. Shown above, fifth grade boys from Mt. Pleasant Elementary School celebrate the first day of school by wearing shirts that read, “It’s a 5th Grade Thing.” Shown are Alan Yaari, Ross Perlstein, Jake Yelner, Evan Herman, Isaac Fleisher, Korey Ellenbogen, Ryan Laveman, Nate Black, Tyler Feldman, Hunter Shangold, Shai Peled, and Logan Kates.

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After continuing production throughout the summer months, Livingston Philanthropies, Inc. (LPI) is officially starting its ninth season of “providing for the poor, homeless, and disenfranchised,” which it has been doing since its inception in 2011.
“Volunteers Alan Levin, Rick Levin and Pat Corcoran kept it all flowing to our state’s poorest by picking up Livingston’s generous donations at the offices of our partner, Livingston’s West Essex Tribune, and delivering to LPI’s Newark distribution partners,” notes Jeff “the Coat Guy” Friedman, LPI founder and director.

About 6,000 Livingston Public School students will embark on their first day of the 2019-20 school year onWednesday, September 4.Teachers had begun earlier, attending professional development programs on August 29 and September 3.

Highlights of the official 2019-20 academic calendar, including vacations and holidays, are presented below. For additional details, including partial days for specific grades or conferences, visit livingston.org.

This calendar was most recently amended on July 17, and provides a total of 183 days for students and 187 days for teachers.

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CHECKING IT OUT: Children are using the last days of August to get a head start on the new playground equipment at Littell People’s Park, which has a section for two to five year old children and another for five to twelve year old children. The town plans to hold an official opening in a few weeks when the final steps of the renovation, including grass, top soil and fencing, are completed. EL Photos

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Zoey the “Hurricane Dog” was loved, Beth Cerullo says, but she has always felt bad, knowing her original human “parents” may never have known what had happened to her.

Zoey was a hurricane “foundling.” The mid-sized tri-color terrier was found outside Saint Barnabas Medical Center by staff members in September, 2004, as Hurricane Ivan raged.

The dog was an escape artist, says Cerullo, who must have run out of her house during the storm. “She kept running away from anyone who initially tried to help her – probably trying to get back home – but she’d always come back, or someone managed to always catch her, eventually,” Cerullo says. On the final “catch,” she was taken to a veterinarian, cleaned up, and cared for.

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Labor Day Observed in Livingston:

Livingston Town Hall and all Township offices will be closed on Monday, September 2, in commemoration of the Labor Day holiday.

Garbage Collection

There will be no garbage collection on Monday, September 2. If your normal garbage collection day is Monday, your garbage will be picked up on the next regularly scheduled day, which is Thursday, September 5.

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At the Monday, August 26, regular meeting of the Township Council, the Council heard two presentations, passed several resolutions, and introduced a plan to acquire property for a new Department of Public Works Building.

DPW Building

A proposed ordinance was introduced that would authorize the commencement of an action under eminent domain to acquire block 102, lot 12 in Livingston. The 8.392 acre parcel of land is currently owned by the Zheng Yaun International Flagship School, LLC. It is located on Industrial Parkway, and is currently an overgrown field.

The purpose of acquiring the property for public use, according to the ordinance, would be to build a new Department of Public Works facility. There have been discussions on whether to renovate or move the existing South Livingston Avenue facility for several years.